Typhoon Bavi lashes Japan's southern islands; landslides kill 15 in Philippines
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- Typhoon Bavi lashed Japan's Sakishima island chain on Saturday (July 11, 2026) with maximum sustained winds of 144 kph and gusts reaching 198 kph, suspending all flights and ferries on Ishigaki.
- Two landslides triggered by Bavi's heavy rains on the Philippines' Mindanao island killed at least 15 people and left six missing, authorities said.
- Taiwan evacuated more than 14,000 residents from mainly mountainous northern and eastern areas, cancelled 917 international and all 274 domestic flights, and declared a typhoon holiday across nearly all cities and counties.
- Bavi's 380-kilometre strong-wind radius makes it the largest typhoon to hit Taiwan in more than 30 years, according to the Central Weather Administration.
- CWA forecaster Liao Chwen-huey warned that Saturday night through Sunday daytime would be the period of closest approach and most significant impact on Taiwan.
- Wenzhou, China — a city of 10 million people — is forecast to take a direct hit from Bavi early Sunday after the storm passes northeast of Taiwan.
Why it matters: With 15 already dead in the Philippines and a 380-km wind radius threatening Taiwan and a city of 10 million in coastal China, Bavi is testing disaster-response capacity across four jurisdictions simultaneously. Taiwan's full shutdown and mass evacuation reflect the storm's unusual scale, while Mindanao's landslide toll underscores the vulnerability of mountainous and southern communities that storms passing near (not over) the Philippines can still devastate.
